LIHU‘E — The driver of the motorcycle involved in the fatal accident on Kuhio Highway in Wailua Saturday morning says reports indicating she caused the accident that killed two people are erroneous. The woman, a Wailua Homesteads resident who asked
LIHU‘E — The driver of the motorcycle involved in the fatal accident on Kuhio Highway in Wailua Saturday morning says reports indicating she caused the accident that killed two people are erroneous.
The woman, a Wailua Homesteads resident who asked not to be identified, also said Kaua‘i Police Department officers didn’t even question her until Monday.
She said the 18-wheeler also involved in the accident was already jack-knifing across all three lanes of the highway about the same time her bike went down, and she didn’t “dump it” (her bike) as the county press release and Sunday’s newspaper indicated.
In a telephone interview from her home Monday, she said she was able to avoid debris in the southbound lane with her front tire, but her rear tire hit it, as she did not want to go into the oncoming lane in order to avoid the debris.
She was doing around 43 miles per hour at the time, started losing control of her bike, and leaned to the right to keep herself and her bike in the southbound lane, she said.
When she saw the jack-knifed truck coming toward her, she leaned even more to the right, the truck hit her motorcycle and not her, and she suffered “road rash” over the right side of her body, she said.
She was riding with another motorcyclist at the time of the accident, she said, adding, “We were being careful.” She was wearing a helmet at the time of the accident, according to the Saturday county press releases.
She said she is an experienced rider, having ridden quads and off-road motorcycles for much of her life.
Beth Tokioka, county spokesperson, said Monday via e-mail that the term “dumping it” refers to a motorcyclist deliberately putting his or her bike down in a “controlled crash” in order to avoid hitting something or someone else.
Tokioka said she received that description from KPD investigating officers.
The Saturday-morning accident snarled Eastside traffic, closed the highway for nearly nine hours, and resulted in the deaths of one local man and one male visitor.
The motorcycle, truck and a rental car were the three vehicles involved in the accident that killed Scott Aviguetero, 25, of Kaumakani, and Wesley VanValkenburg, 30, of Union, Ill.
They were pronounced dead at the scene, according to an earlier county press release. Aviguetero was the driver of the big rig, and VanValkenburg was the driver of the rental car.
According to the weekend’s KPD incident daily bulletin, there were two cases of first-degree negligent homicide posted about 90 minutes after the accident.
Acting KPD traffic Capt. Mark Scribner said it is standard operating procedure to open negligent homicide investigations in fatal accidents involving more than one vehicle.
No one has been charged, and if the ongoing investigation doesn’t warrant it, no one will be charged and the cases will be closed, he said.
Also, when the former haul-cane road was opened to accommodate southbound traffic, another car ended up in a ditch, with minor injuries reported, said Scribner.
He would not discuss any more details about the ongoing investigation when he returned a telephone call seeking comment Monday.
Tokioka said no further information from KPD is expected until the investigation is complete, and with an accident as “complex” as this one, there is no time estimate on when the investigation might be completed.
After going nearly three full months in 2009 without a fatal traffic accident, suddenly there are five roadway deaths on Kaua‘i this year, including three in a two-day span last weekend. While Saturday’s two fatalities are the first ones this year involving the Wailua stretch of Kuhio Highway known as “blood alley,” residents worry they won’t be the last in 2009.
The area earned that moniker because there is no place to dodge oncoming traffic for those heading southbound, and because the two northbound lanes offer opportunities for speeds far exceeding the posted 50 mph speed limit.
“It needed a center divide,” says Wailua Homesteads resident Su Haynes, who drives the highway almost daily.
Even before she relocated to Kaua‘i from Santa Cruz, Calif., as a travel agent she warned visitors headed to Kaua‘i of the dangers of this stretch of Kuhio Highway.
“It is very scary in my new car,” she said of her Nissan sports car. “It was moderately scary in my old car,” a Honda sports car. She said she feels pretty safe in the pickup truck she sometimes drives.
She had hoped that, after Hurricane ‘Iniki struck in September 1992, state officials would take the rebuilding opportunity to make safety improvements to the road.
They didn’t.
“People are dying,” said Haynes, who vowed to make the situation known to her friends in the federal government, in hopes of encouraging use of some economic-stimulus funds to make the highway safer. “It needs a median strip.”
That sentiment was echoed by Ron Wiley, the KQNG radio personality who spent 12 hours on the radio Saturday monitoring the situation and hearing teary-eyed remembrances of Aviguetero from friends and family members.
• Paul C. Curtis, staff writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 224) or pcurtis@kauaipubco.com
